Featured Articles: Arts and Media

Earlier this month, The New Yorker online interviewed Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche while he was getting ready to speak at the New York Society for Ethical Culture. The Sakyong is the leader of the Shambhala tradition, which believes in the inherent...

The Buddha said that hatred never destroys hatred -- only love can do that. But it's hard not to hate people who hurt people, especially when the ones they hurt are children, especially when they hurt our children. That's what makes a letter written...

I am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging.I am subject to illness, have not gone beyond illness.I am subject to death, have not gone beyond death.I will grow different, separate from all that is dear and appealing to me.I am the owner of my...

You really have no idea how hard it is for an armadillo to disguise itself sufficiently enough to attend the 2013 annual Giraffe’s Religion and Righteous Spiritual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, without being removed as a heretic simply because...

If you listen to dharma talks or read contemporary dharma books or talk deep dharma to people, you'll hear the lament that people don't really see each other or hear each other. We see just enough to slot them into a place in our perceptions and...

Traditional meditation texts sometimes describe the unmeditated state as "monkey mind." But for the last week I've been sitting with my new kitten, and I feel like I'm seeing my mind manifested. The kitten is all over the place -- chasing a piece of...

There's a six-minute video of Louis C.K. on the Conan O'Brien Show explaining why he won't buy his daughter a smartphone that's making the rounds among Buddhist types, people who usually share quotes from the Dalai Lama and pictures of nature. Why?...

Profiling of any kind leads to a divided nation. In light of recent discussions linking Aaron Alexis' Buddhism/meditation practice and mental illness, I share my experiences with all in hopes that we can transform evil instead of creating more.

Aaron Alexis, who killed 12 people Monday at Washington, D.C.'s Navy Yard, was reportedly a meditator who lived for a time at a Buddhist Center in Texas. That fact was featured prominently in news stories about Alexis because it's so contrary to the...

I have to say that I cringe a little when I hear White Buddhists talk about "ethnic" Buddhist traditions. Sure, every large religious or philosophical tradition can stray from core tenets over time, or the connection to those tenets can be...

George Saunders, a creative writing professor at Syracuse University, gave a commencement speech with a simple message: Be kind. After it was printed last week in the New York Times, the speech went viral, demonstrating that people are aching to...

In this week's installment of the online-only class on Buddhist basics, Ethan Nichtern and Sharon Salzberg talk about the importance of the view. The Buddha included Right View as the first factor on the Eight-fold Path to liberation from suffering.

George Stephanopoulos, host of Good Morning America, started meditating after hearing about the scientific benefits. He's been doing it every day for a couple of years now. Now he calls it a lifesaver.

In the novel I'm currently reading, the protagonist has to go through An Ordeal, one of the tests that's required to fulfill the hero trope. In this story, a work of magical realism in which existence is revealed to be a dream and dreams turn out to...

Damian Echols spent 18 years in prison for murders he didn't commit and was freed nearly two
years ago. He lived on Death Row, and he suffered physically and mentally, he says. To cope with that, he learned eastern methods of working with the body...